To me, they embodied the Velvet Underground aesthetic in a better way than most. Instead of just using them as an excuse to whisper over I-IV progressions, make painful noise, or just generally think that whatever they do is "good enough" because the Velvets were simple too, they actually got into the extended groove thing (shades of Can as well) and committed to them. It's still simple -- usually one chord instead of two, taking away that second chord makes all the difference! -- but it seems the opposite of the "good enough" brigade.

I'm still at the 15-minute mark. This is brave music. It certainly starts in the VU vein, but it's also 'Mother Sky' and five other things, and as a result, truly its own thing. I'm no great Stereolab fan boy, by the way.

Quaco wrote:To me, they embodied the Velvet Underground aesthetic in a better way than most. Instead of just using them as an excuse to whisper over I-IV progressions, make painful noise, or just generally think that whatever they do is "good enough" because the Velvets were simple too, they actually got into the extended groove thing (shades of Can as well) and committed to them. It's still simple -- usually one chord instead of two, taking away that second chord makes all the difference! -- but it seems the opposite of the "good enough" brigade.

Great summary. I had the 10" maxi single with French Disco as last track. It's ace, always has been. The influences now (not then, I'd never heard Can) seem fairly clear but there's alchemy involved there.

I'm enjoying the shit out of this right now - at the "fade back in" section (7-8 min mark, roughly) and hoping for an uninterrupted remainder.

There's a hell of a lot going on on this record (TRNBWA)- their absolute summit, in my view. Somehow it manages to be some of the least processed sounding music of its era - and yet it is literally bursting with fantastic ideas and spontaneous moments and glorious sounds. I can't speak to any other person's impressions of them, but...I guess I hear them "digging the fuck in" quite a bit (possibly not their most salient feature). Even within all of the sort of "unrelenting repetition" of the three songs on Side A, there is a hell of a lot of dynamic tension and release.